Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2022-02-28 19:24
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. leader of the Bloc Québécois. I completely agree with him and I appreciate him having the courage to clearly say that we have no reason to support fossil fuels.
Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, published a new report stating quite clearly how close we are to the tipping point of a major planetary disaster. We are facing security threats and planetary threats.
I found a quote by Svitlana Krakovska, head of the Ukrainian delegation at the IPCC negotiations. She said:
She said, “Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots—fossil fuels—and our dependence on them,” and “We will not surrender in Ukraine, and we hope the world will not surrender in building a climate resilient future”.
I would like my colleague’s comments on that, please.
Yves-François Blanchet (Beloeil—Chambly)
2022-02-28 19:26
Mr. Speaker, I do not want to derail this debate entirely, but that report is alarming. It really made me question whether the people who hold the political and economic power are prepared to deal with or mitigate the fallout of climate change. Are they just insulating themselves from the impact of climate change by accumulating more wealth and selling more oil? Climate change will hurt many other people who are far less wealthy.
That is horribly cynical. I do not think that producing and exporting more oil helps Ukraine or anyone. I think that we need to be looking at other solutions all around.
Obviously, since we need to transition much more quickly, western Canada will not be a supplier for Europe.